The Millennium contingency made up part of a judge pool more than 300 strong -- career professionals in engineering, math, and the sciences who took all or part of a sunny Friday off to help motivate and inspire the state's up-and-coming scientists.

“I always find this to be a very rewarding experience both for me and, I can tell, for the students who are participating," said David Sedlock, Millennium's Sr. Director of Research Systems and a seven-year volunteer judge. "I do this because I enjoy giving back to the community."

MSSEF is grateful for the involvement of companies like Millennium and individuals from across... Read More

Adrian Haber (left) of Boston Latin School and Rahi Punjabi of Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School in Marlborough were selected to represent Massachusetts at an international science fair competition in Chicago last week. Haber, of Boston and Punjabi, of Northborough, competed against students from across the country in the U.S. National BioGENEius Challenge at the BIO International Convention in Chicago on April 20th. As BioGENEius delegates, Haber and Punjabi also attended the 2013 BIO International Convention in Chicago (April 22-25). “By highlighting the amazing research of these students, at such a young age, the BioGENEius Challenge promotes scientific excellence and curiosity. With more than 430 students competing in the Challenge each year, we hope to encourage these students – as... Read More

President Obama took a tour of more than 30 science, technology and engineering projects on Monday, April 22nd in his third White House Science Fair. Exhibits included a bicycle-pedal powered water filtration system created by Payton Karr and Kiona Elliot, classmates at Northeast High School of Oakland Park, Florida, that was tested by the commander-in-chief himself. Senior Administration officials and leading STEM communicators, advocates, and educators attended the White House Science Fair as well and met the students, encouraging further participation in both science fairs across the nation and STEM fields. One projected was created by Boston, Massachusetts native Cassidy Wright through her school’s TechnoSWAG learning-apprenticeship program. Cassidy created an LED banner programmed to automatically flash the message “BE YOURSELF.” She built the banner in order to make a statement... Read More

Last week, thousands gathered to hear about the wonders of science and engineering from hundreds of Massachusetts organizations. Tables filled with activities lit up children's faces and intrigued their parents. For four hours, these activities took over the Cambridge Public Library and the surrounding lawn and field house.

In addition to all of the hands-on activities, students of all ages also enjoyed a robot zoo featuring water robots, rolling robots, sniffing robots and every other kind of robot in between. Stage performances featuring fanciful chemistry demonstrations, science comedy, and much more entertained visitors throughout the event.

For the past year a group of 10 East Boston High School (EBHS) students with the guidance of two EBHS teachers have been learning science and helping their community. The students have been reading and creating science non-fiction stories for elementary students at Umana Academy in East Boston. They have also been mentoring 6th graders leading and environmental initiative at Umana. During all of this, the students were also fundraising for their biggest service learning project - a trip to Arizona to volunteer at the Navajo Nation reservation. The students completed their trip last week and chronicled their activities on a... Read More

Many feel that when people refer to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) they are really just talking about science and math. Technology and engineering often get put aside in K-12 classrooms to focus on the fundamentals of science and mathematics. However, things are starting to change. As the need for students with engineering and technology skills increases the need to teach students these skills before they reach college has become apparent.

EdWeek mentions a number of initiatives to bring the T and E in STEM that are gaining momentum in classrooms across the country. Tens of thousands of classrooms are now using the Engineering is Elementary curriculum materials developed by Boston's own Museum of Science. The new common standards also have a greater focus on engineering skills and an engineering based Advanced Placement (AP) course may be... Read More

The Boston-based non-profit Citizen Schools has long been working with corporate partners to bring exciting STEM experiences into the classroom and give students access to STEM professionals. Now, Citizen Schools will working with corporations on the US2020 project with the goal of having 1 million STEM professionals mentoring K12, college, and graduate students throughout their careers by the year 2020. In addition to changing the landscape of STEM education by giving students these opportunities, they also hope to change the workplace for those in STEM careers by making volunteering a common occurrence. Citizen Schools will be incubating this project until June 2014. Cisco, Cognizant, and SanDisk are the founding corporate partners.... Read More

MSSEF received notification of an opportunity through the UMass STEM Ed Institute that we thought we’d share with "Inquiry First" readers. Mohawk Trail High School has been a long-time participant in the Massachusetts State Science Fair program. The UMass STEM Ed Institute Tuesday Seminar Series presents:Wayne KermenskiScience Teacher, Mohawk Trail Regional School DistrictProject Based Learning, the Fifth Academic Class A few years back, Mohawk Trail Regional Middle School created a course entitled, Project Based Learning or PBL. It became one of five academic classes for middle school students. The goals for this course included inquiry-based projects that enforced skills students learned in their other courses. In addition, the course was responsible for implementing social curriculum, math and reading literacy remediation, and authentic learning opportunities. The benefits from this course included an increase in student attendance, a well-rounded education for our students, and a letter of acknowledgement from the Governor for our achievement in our MCAS math scores. Come find out about this... Read More

Samidha Sane, 8th grade science teacher and science fair coordinator at the Locke Middle School in Billerica, received the Aerospace Teacher of the Year award from the Massachusetts Wing Civil Air Patrol (the auxiliary wing of the US Air Force). Samidha is now Massachusetts' aerospace teacher of the year nominee for the entire Northeast region. Depending on the results of the Northeast competition, she could move to the national level.

Samidha's school, the Locke Middle School, is one of 30 "GEMS" schools that received multi-year grants to expand or start science fair programs and to enable more students to engage in hands-on experience with real-world science practices. As a result, for the last three years, top student researchers at the Locke Middle School have earned a... Read More

After collecting ticks for her originally intended science fair project, Braintree High School sophomore Jacqueline Flynn decided to pursue a topic on ticks with a different spin (or rather, spin cycle).

Worried about keeping her clothing tick free after collecting the parasitic arachnids, Flynn researched methods of killing them in the laundry. She found a large lack of data on the subject, with recommendations while washing machines were ineffective, that a full hour in a dryer would kill them. However, after her own extensive testing, she found that five minutes on a low-heat cycle would be sufficient.

Soon Flynn's project results garnered attention from the state parks and forestry services as well as officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said they were willing to help her expand on her research. "It just spread very fast," Flynn told the School Committee.